Motorway services and large petrol retailers will be required to install chargepoints for electric cars under plans announced by ministers as part of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill.

Dyson – the firm best known for innovative vacuum cleaners and hand dryers – has announced plans to spend £2bn to produce a ‘radically different’ battery electric vehicle to be launched in 2020.

Founder and CEO James Dyson said in an email to the firm’s employees that the vehicle would seek to address the issue of emissions ‘at source’, following previous attempts to filter them from the exhaust, and would build upon tecnology in the firm’s existing products such as hairdryers and vacuum cleaners.

He said: ‘We’ve started building an exceptional team that combines top Dyson engineers with talented individuals from the automotive industry. The team is already over 400 strong, and we are recruiting aggressively. I’m committed to investing £2bn in this endeavour.’

Mr Dyson said the firm would not at this stage be releasing any information. He wrote: ‘Competition for new technology in the automotive industry is fierce and we must do everything we can to keep the specifics of our vehicle confidential.’

According to the Guardian, the billionaire inventor said the car would be ‘radically different’ from current models. He said its electric motor was ready, while two different battery types were under development that he claimed were already more efficient than in existing electric cars.

Mr Dyson pointed to research suggesting that 9,500 people die annually in London alone as a result of poor air quality. He said: ‘It has [long] remained my ambition to find a solution to the global problem of air pollution.’

Gareth Smith, category manager at ESPO (Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation), discusses the role of the public sector in bringing about the switch to electric vehicles (EVs) and a new purchasing framework launched by his organisation to help drive this forward. Read more

Electric vehicle drivers in Oxford will benefit from a joint city and county council scheme to install approximately 100 electric vehicle charging stations in residential streets – using six different charging technologies. Read more

Apps that notify motorists of congestion and available parking spaces, and real time journey information for visually impaired passengers, are just some of the projects that will receive a share of £4 million government technology funding.Read more

Vans will go electric and lorries will run on hydrogen dual-fuel under a £20 million government programme to cut emissions and improve air quality, the Transport Minister John Hayes has announced.Read more